Recent MRI Advances in Experimental Stroke

Duong [5] describes recent progresses in the development and application of multimodal MRI and image analysis techniques to study ischemic tissue at risk in experimental stroke in rats. The topics covered include: (1) automated clustering analysis of perfusion and diffusion data was used to characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of acute ischemic stroke, (2) the use of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI of forepaw stimulation and of brief oxygen challenge to probe the perfusion–diffusion mismatch, (3) quantitative predictive models to predict ischemic tissue fate based on acute perfusion and/or diffusion data, and (4) the use of multimodal MRI to investigate the hyperperfusion phenomenon associated with ischemic stroke. The data suggest that animals with contralesional dominance primarily safeguard local cerebral blood flow values with small changes in contralesional perfusion territory, while animals with ipsilesional dominance show a reversal of dominance and a substantial increase in contralesional perfusion territory. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2012 update: a report from the American Heart Association.